As the calendar displays December 5, it’s that time of the year — International Volunteer Day is here!

Ever since its establishment by the United Nations in 1985, International Volunteer Day has been celebrated annually on December 5. International Volunteer Day recognizes and promotes the impact of volunteers in social, environmental, and economic challenges. It also encourages more people to start their volunteering journeys, strengthening the bond between individuals, volunteers, and organizations.

Seventeen years ago, the OTW was founded by fans, for fans.

It’s important to remember that the fans who maintain the OTW and its many projects—such as the Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Transformative Works and Cultures, and more—are all volunteers dedicated to preserving fan culture in digital and physical media while providing a safe space for fans and transformative works.

As of December 2024, the OTW proudly has 941 volunteers worldwide. Our volunteers tirelessly debug lines of code, write documentation and posts, maintain and create content on our social media feeds, wrangle tags, translate documents and posts, make sure our sites (including but not limited to AO3!) run smoothly, edit Fanlore pages, answer user queries, provide legal guidance, import fan fiction archives, contribute to Transformative Works and Cultures, and so much more.

On this International Volunteer Day, we would like to celebrate our hardworking volunteers once again, whose tireless efforts and passion make our mission of preserving fan works and fan culture possible.

We wish all our volunteers—past, present, and future—a happy International Volunteer Day. Thank you for all you do!